Petition to abolish Odesa's charter garners enough signatures to be considered by mayor

A petition demanding the abolition of the current Odesa City Charter and the creation of a working group to develop a new version of the document, which was sent to the mayor of Odesa, has collected the required 1,000 signatures.

This was reported by the author of the appeal, Serhiy Bondarenko.

"The petition to abolish this damned charter with a bunch of racist markers and to create a working group to develop a new version of the charter has received the required number of votes. Now it's the turn of the person who currently holds the office of Odesa mayor to decide whether he will obey the will of Odesa residents or push through his own version (I don't know what to call it culturally) with a lot of violations of current legislation both in the text of the draft and in violation of the procedure for approving such documents," he commented.

Meanwhile, in September 2025, the Odesa municipality published a draft of a new city charter, which proposes to approve the song "The Land of the Black Sea" with lyrics by Semen Kirsanov and music by Modest Tabachnikov (translated into Ukrainian by Serhiy Osoka) as the city's anthem.

The mention of Odesa's place in the Russian Empire and the feat of the Russian military in the city's history was removed from the charter. Instead, a reference was added to the fact that the traditions of urban planning within the boundaries of modern Odesa date back to antiquity. Cartographic documents from the early 14th century (1311) and archaeological materials indicate the existence of a Ginestra factory (trading post) on the shores of the modern Gulf of Odesa, and the first written mention of the port (Kochubiyiv, Kachibey, Hadzhibey) is dated May 19, 1415.

The Charter, in accordance with the laws of Ukraine, defines the city symbols, city holidays and memorable dates, honors and awards of the territorial community, the basic principles of the administrative-territorial division of the city, as well as the development of the city, the system of local self-government in Odesa and the principles of interaction between its elements, forms and procedures for direct participation of members of the territorial community, civil society institutions in the implementation of local self-government, the principles of preserving cultural heritage and promoting socio-cultural development of cities

Кирило Бойко